Dillinger's Charisma
A consummate charmer
What made the prolific bank robber different from his peers was his charisma and wit. As seen above, he poses with a prospective prosecutor but moments later, he would take this opportunity to signal to his gang of a forthcoming escape.
The Dillinger Story
Fifteen agents were selected, eleven of whom would fly, the other four were to drive. Once there, they joined forces with another group who had flown in from St. Paul. The leader of this group, Assistant Director Hugh Clegg, assumed overall command of the operation. Expecting to begin the raid at 4 a.m., it was learned from Voss's wife that Dillinger and the others had moved their departure up to that evening. The agents located five vehicles and drew up plans to surround the lodge. Three agents in bulletproof vests were to come through the front door while others took up positions around the lodge.
On the trip to the lodge, two of the cars broke down requiring some of the agents to ride on the running boards of the remaining cars in the extreme cold. Just before 8 p.m., they arrived at their destination and immediately blocked the driveway with two of the cars. They then began to move in on foot.
As they neared the lodge, they were suddenly confronted by barking dogs, which Voss had failed to warn them of. The agents rushed into position, thinking that those inside had been alerted. At just this moment, three of the visitors to the lodge headed to their car, while two of the lodge employees came outside to check on the barking. As the three men began backing their car out, the agents opened fire believing it was gang members getting away. One of the occupants of the car was killed instantly.
Hearing the gunfire outside, the gang quickly moved into place and opened fire, Nelson shooting from the cabin. Within moments, as previously planned, Dillinger, Van Meter and Hamilton, followed by Carroll went out the back of the lodge. They headed down to the adjacent lake and escaped to the north on foot. Nelson soon escaped, heading the opposite direction along the shore. While he headed south, the others soon located vehicles to steal, and got away.
Forcing his way into a nearby lodge owned by a man named Koerner, Nelson was holding the occupants hostage when Emil Wanatka and his brother-in-law arrived in front with the two employees from Little Bohemia. Nelson commandeered their vehicle and prepared to leave with Emil and Koerner as hostages, unaware that Koerner had already called the FBI when he noted Nelson's suspicious arrival.
At 10:30 p.m., Dillinger and his companions exited the theater. Purvis having identified him, lit his cigar, the prearranged signal. Purvis and Agent Herman E. Hollis closed in from behind with guns drawn. As he neared the alleyway down from the theater, glancing over his shoulder, he began to run into the alley. Agents Hollis, Charles Winstead, and C. Hurt fired five times. Three bullets hit Dillinger and he fell face down. One shot, probably fired by Winstead, had entered his neck and exited under his right eye, killing him.
Taken to the Alexian Bros. Hospital, he was pronounced dead at 10:30 p.m. From there his body was transported to the Cook County Morgue, where a huge crowd gathered and a number of photos were taken. The FBI checked his fingerprints, and in spite of his attempts to have them obliterated, were able to make a positive identification. An autopsy was then performed. The next day the body was put on display at the morgue and thousands came to look at the infamous John Dillinger. Newspapers were filled with stories of his betrayal by a "woman in red", soon identified by the press as Anna Sage.
The body was next transferred to McCready Mortuary. On July 24, the remains were taken to the E.F. Harvey Funeral Parlor in Mooresville. The casket was soon moved from there to his sister's home in Maywood. A crowd of thousands gathered outside the Crown Hill Cemetery, as the twenty car funeral procession arrived. Dillinger's body was then buried. Due to countless rumors that would go on for years, that it wasn't Dillinger's body in the ground, John Dillinger Sr. soon made arrangements to have 3 ft. of reinforced concrete poured into the ground above the grave, lest anyone attempt to dig up the coffin.
Of his surviving companions, Van Meter was trapped and killed a month later in St. Paul. Shortly thereafter, Makley was killed and Harry Pierpont wounded in a failed jailbreak. Pierpont would soon go to the electric chair. Russell Clark received a life sentence for his part in the Sarber killing. On November 27, 1934, Baby Face Nelson, while traveling with Helen Gillis and armed companion John Paul Chase, were spotted by Federal Agents Samuel Cowley and H.E. Hollis. During the gun battle that followed, Nelson killed Cowley and Hollis, but was himself mortally wounded. His body, having been dumped not far away, was discovered the next morning.
While Dillinger was lodged in the jail at Lima, Ohio, his companions carried out their escape on October 12. All ultimately getting away except for Joseph Jenkins, who after being thrown from the getaway car after the Michigan City jail break, managed to commandeer a vehicle driven by a youth who was able to escape after tricking Jenkins into checking the gas tank. Jenkins was later shot and killed by local posse members on alert in Beanblossom, Indiana.
Three of the escapees, Pierpont, Clark and Makley, soon broke Dillinger out of the Lima jail after badly beating and shooting Sheriff Jesse Sarber, who died that evening. Immediately after the Lima escape the gang went to Cincinnati. Later the gang proceeded to Chicago to avoid the intense manhunt throughout Ohio. In Auburn and Peru, Indiana, they robbed police arsenals acquiring a cache of weapons including machine guns and also bulletproof vests.
During the gang's stay in Chicago, several important events were to transpire. On November 15, Dillinger, with his new girlfriend, Evelyn "Billie" Frechette, narrowly escaped a police ambush set up when an informant had notified the police that Dillinger would be seeing a dermatologist named Dr. Charles Eye. Dillinger eluded his pursuers after having his vehicle shot up in a high speed chase.
The publicity mounting, on November 20, the gang carried out a daring robbery in Racine, Wisconsin. With shots being fired, they escaped behind a shield of hostages. Then on December 14, John Hamilton mortally wounded Sergeant William Shanley, when the detective tried to capture Hamilton in a garage where the detective had followed a lead on a gang vehicle being repaired there. The killing of this detective would foce the gang out of Chicago but Hamilton and Homer Van Meter were told they were not welcome to follow the gang to Florida until they settled matters with the Chicago Capone mob lead by Frank Nitti as capone was servng time in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary.
The passing of John Dillinger and his gang marked the beginning of the end of an era of lawlessness in American history. His short life had ended violently, but his legend would continue to grow with the passage of time. Little would he have imagined that, in the end, he would be remembered as the most notorious outlaw of his time.
Essential Sources
DILLINGER: A SHORT VIOLENT LIFE
Robert Cromie and Joe Pinkston
Chicago Historical Bookworks
THE DILLINGER DAYS
John Toland
Da Capo Press
DILLINGER: THE UNTOLD STORY
G. Russell Girardin and William J. Helmer
Indiana University Press
DILLINGER SLEPT HERE: A CROOKS TOUR OF CRIME AND CORRUPTION IN ST. PAUL, 1920-1936
Paul Maccabee
Minnesota Historical Society Press